Analysis of Holy Sonnet I: Thou Hast Made Me

John Donne 1572 (London) – 1631 (London)



Thou hast made me, and shall thy work decay?
Repair me now, for now mine end doth haste;
I run to death, and death meets me as fast,
And all my pleasures are like yesterday.
I dare not move my dim eyes any way,
Despair behind, and death before doth cast
Such terror, and my feeble flesh doth waste
By sin in it, which it towards hell doth weigh.
Only thou art above, and when towards thee
By thy leave I can look, I rise again;
But our old subtle foe so tempteth me
That not one hour myself I can sustain.
Thy grace may wing me to prevent his art,
And thou like adamant draw mine iron heart.


Scheme ABCAACBADEDFGG
Poetic Form
Metre 1111011101 0111111111 1111011111 011101110 1111111101 0101010111 1100110111 11011101111 10110101011 1111111101 1101101111 1111011101 1111110111 01110011101
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 586
Words 121
Sentences 6
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 14
Lines Amount 14
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 9
Letters per stanza (avg) 455
Words per stanza (avg) 119
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

36 sec read
315

John Donne

John Donne was an English poet, satirist, lawyer and a cleric in the Church of England. more…

All John Donne poems | John Donne Books

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